Death's Doors
by Cherry Punch
Summary: A trio as legendary as Percy, Annabeth, and Grover. They have been dead for decades, but when Death's Doors opened, they found their way out. They could be valuable to have on the gods side, but that's provided they're found in time.
1. Chapter 1

"_And they left their house. The lights danced for them, holding their hands and telling them everything would be okay. The stars themselves came down from the heavens and guided them away. They made sure they were going home."_

_Coridan stared up at her mother wide eyed. It wasn't story that intrigued her, not really. It was the way her mother's bright red lips shaped to form each word. Every syllable was presented with a perfect, brisk accent that she had acquired from living in England her whole life. Her rust red hair was pulled into a neat, elegantly curled pile on her head. She wore a white shirt tucked into a long, black skirt. Her delicate hands held the story book with amazing grace. _

"_But momma, if they were leaving their house, how could they be going home?"_

_Misty looked down at her daughter, her blue eyes meeting Coridan's olive green ones. _

"_Home isn't always where your house is, sweetheart."_

"_But isn't this our home, momma?"_

"_What do you think?"_

"_No?"_

_Misty chuckled, hugging her daughter closer to her._

"_I can't tell you that, my love. My home is wherever you're safe. Everyone's home is where their most loved things can be safe."_

"_Does that mean my home is where you're safe?"_

"_I don't know. Am I what you love most?"_

"_Yes," Coridan answered quickly. Misty smiled and leaned forward, pressing her rosy lips to her daughter's forehead._

_The whistle of an airplane sounded overhead._

_From outside, a terrible light illuminated Coridan's bedroom._

* * *

><p>"How can we find them? They've been dead for well over sixty years!"<p>

"It doesn't seem like we have much of a choice, Annabeth. I knew them. If the Doors of Death were open as long as we think, they would've been desperate to escape and find each other again. They are strong fighters. If we find them, they would prove to be valuable assets," Chiron reasoned.

"We don't even know if they're alive."

"Yes, we do. At least one of them. Alana, the daughter of Apollo, contacted me two weeks ago. I've been wondering about it, and it seems we finally have our answer. If we can find her, the other two won't be so difficult to locate."

"Alana. You said they were special. What made her so special? If we do try to find her, what should we expect?"

"Alana won't be your biggest threat. She is gentle, not easily provoked. As to what makes her special, she created a rather unusual form of fighting. She was an extraordinary artist, and she figured out a way to bring her art to life."

"What?" Percy asked.

"Her drawings. She could literally bring them to life. Her specialties were monsters, real and ones she came up with. They were much more fragile than the real beasts, but they fought with the ferocity of the real thing."

"That sounds…terrifying," Percy said.

"It was. But, like I said. Of the three, Alana was the mellowest. She won't fight unless absolutely necessary."

"Good to know," Annabeth murmured. She was still running the idea through her head. Three half-bloods, born stranger than the rest, back in the world of the living even though they had been dead for decades. A trio as legendary as Annabeth, Percy and Grover were. A son of Hades, a daughter of Ares, and a daughter of Apollo.

It made no sense.

"And you really think they could help us?" Percy asked.

"I do," Chiron answered. He sounded absolutely certain of it. Percy glanced at Annabeth and a silent conversation passed between them.

"Alright. We'll do it."

* * *

><p><em>Alana stared up at the stars, her mother at her side. <em>

"_You know, there is nothing more beautiful than that sky, especially in Italy. We have the best sky in the whole world," her mother told her, her thick Italian accent wearing in the words. Her honey brown hair sprawled out around her, standing out on the terracotta roof they laid on. It was hard to believe that anything was more beautiful than her, but Alana took her word for it._

_Alana looked at the moon. "That moon is close to you, darling. It may not know it, but it's watching over you."_

"_But the moon is not always in the sky. What happens when it's gone?"_

"_Then the sun watches you. It is closer to you than anyone else."_

"_Even you?"_

_Florence turned her head and took in her daughter with green eyes. "We are equally close to you."_

_Alana smiled slightly at that. She had always loved the sun. It was so warm and beautiful. _

"_I like that," she murmured. Florence smiled._

_Then, there was a terrible shaking._

_The roof collapsed in underneath their backs._

* * *

><p>"How, exactly, are we going to find them? Did she say where she was?"<p>

"Not in that many words, no. But, she did say the ocean was beautiful from where she was."

"So she's on the coast? That could be anywhere," Annabeth pointed out.

"She also commented on how America had grown since her last visit," Chiron said.

"That makes it a little easier," Percy said. "If she is on the coast, maybe I could pull a few strings, get some people to check out the beaches."

"Maybe, but even if you did, she could be in Hawaii or Alaska. We don't have that much time," Annabeth said, looking worried.

"I don't see any easier way."

"Chiron, you said she contacted you weeks ago. What makes you think she's still where she was?"

"Well, I have the letter right here," the centaur said, holding up a piece of lined paper covered margin to margin with neat handwriting. Even through the Iris message, both demi-gods could read the last line.

_**I'm waiting**__._

* * *

><p>"<em>Aaron, where do you think you're going," his mother called, watching her son warily as he raced through the wheat fields. He smiled insanely, letting out a crazed laugh. <em>_She shook her head before putting down her basket and racing after him. He glanced over his shoulder, running faster as his mother advanced. "Aaron you silly child! Come here!"_

_Her black hair floated behind her, her light brown eyes glowing with delight. _

_They were quickly flooded with fear as the ground beneath her opened up._

_Aaron heard the groan of the earth and spun around._

_Where his mother should've been, there was only a huge, bottomless gorge._

* * *

><p><strong>(AN) I know I should be updating my SYOC story, but I've been having terrible writers block. I was hoping this would get my brain moving (it didn't really, but oh well). I'll update that one soon, I just need to force myself to write it. **

**I know their little biographies got shorter and shorter, but it wasn't just me being lazy. They serve a timing purpose. **

**XOXO**

**~Cherry Punch **


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO**

"We don't even know what they look like," Annabeth said. The world around Percy's car blurred. They didn't have a destination just yet, as long as they reached a beach.

"Don't worry so much, Wise Girl. We're going to find them."

"One of them. But what if she's the only one? What if the other two are still in the underworld?"

"Then, we fight without them. This isn't a make it or break it thing, Annabeth. It'd just be helpful if we had them on our side."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," she mumbled.

"What was that? I couldn't hear you."

"I said, I guess you're right," she muttered incoherently.

"What? Speak up."

"You were right," she said a little louder, glaring at his smug grin. "You enjoyed that too much, Seaweed Brain."

He chuckled.

* * *

><p>"<em>Who are you?"<em>

"_My name's Coridan, this is Alana."_

"_What do you want?"_

"_We lost everything too. We're going to find ourselves a new home. You can come with us, if you want."_

_Aaron furrowed his eyebrows. _

"_You have a weird voice. You aren't from America, are you?"_

_Both girls shook their heads. The one who had been talking had olive green eyes and rusty hair. There was a cut on her cheek and her upper arm, but she didn't seem to notice. The smaller girl had curly blonde hair and crystal blue eyes. She didn't have the bright smile Coridan wore. _

"_I'm from England," Coridan said proudly. _

"_Italy," Alana said, smiling slightly to show her pride. _

"_What are you doing here?"_

_At this both girls frowned. It seemed unnatural on Coridan. Aaron didn't like it._

"_We don't have our parents anymore. The war took my mom," she said. He looked at Alana._

"_An earthquake took mine," she said. That gave Aaron a pang of sadness. _

"_Me too."_

_Coridan's smile returned. "It's like fate! You have to come with us!"_

"_I can't go with you! I don't even know you. Besides, this is my home. I can't leave it."_

"_No, this is your house. My mom taught me the difference. You don't have anything left here, do you?"_

_He opened his mouth to disagree, but slowly he shut it. There was nothing he could honestly say to dispute her. She was right._

"_Fine, I'll go with you."_

_Alana smiled, too. "What's your name, anyway?"_

"_Aaron," he answered confidently. _

"_That's a nice name. I like it," Coridan said, her eyes flashing with pure elation. Aaron smiled at her._

* * *

><p>Alana tossed a stone into the water. It narrowly missed hitting a sunburned chubby kid who was there on vacation. His mother, who was equally as disturbing, immediately reprimanded her.<p>

"You could have hurt my baby! You could've killed him, for goodness sake! Hello? Are you listening to me?"

Alana stared up blankly at the woman. She considered telling her off, but it really wasn't worth her breath.

"Mi dispiace, io non parlano inglese," she said.

"What?" The woman squawked.

Alana shrugged and offered her best 'I'm sorry' smile. She got up and walked down the beach, finding just a little satisfaction when she heard the woman scream at her husband for staring.

Eventually, she stumbled upon a less populate area. She rolled her eyes when she realized the only thing keeping people from going into the little paradise was a wall of semi jagged shards of rock.

What had happened to America? When she and Coridan had gotten there, it was a place that prided itself on its advances. It was the leading country in the world, and it loved it. It wasn't selfish or conceded, no. It was just _proud_, and it had every reason to be. And it wasn't America that had changed, it was the people. From what Alana had seen, it was a loud, arrogant, obnoxious place, full of loud, arrogant, obnoxious people.

She knew one American better than she knew the palm of her hand. And he was none of those things. Well, maybe at times he could act that way. Maybe that part of him had rubbed off on a whole country.

She shook her head. No,_ time_ had taken its toll. That was it. She couldn't blame Aaron, that wasn't fair. Not when he couldn't defend himself.

She paused at the top on the wall to swallow the lump in her throat. She couldn't blame Aaron on all of that because he was dead. When she had written to Chiron, she had said the other two probably escaped through the Doors of Death too, but the honest truth was she had no idea. The fate of her friends was so beyond her control it hurt. Of course she had tried to Iris Message them, but it hadn't worked. She needed to find them, know their faces again before the message would work. The decades had been hard on her memory. Her friends were sketchy in her mind. She remembered names, but that was the easy part. Faces were vague. In her mind, Coridan came up with rust red hair and green, no, blue, or was it brown eyes? Aaron had brown eyes and blonde, or brown, or black hair? He was taller, that much was clear. But it didn't help. Alana was 5'1''. Everyone was taller than her. Coridan was tall too, but shorter than Aaron.

Not that it helped. She couldn't go by height.

The sand on the other end of the wall was cool on her feet. It was pleasant. It reminded her of her friends. While they evaded her, their memories were mostly still there.

* * *

><p>"<em>What's the matter, Death Breath? Afraid of a little water?" Coridan taunted. Alana glanced up from her sketch book, just waiting to see what Aaron did to her. He glared at the daughter of Ares from the end of the dock where they both stood while she gave him her signature smile. Time and time again, Alana had told her she needed different smiles for different situations, and Coridan had tried. But every time she smiled, which was all the time, she went back to that over the top, bright, crooked grin. <em>

"_Not at all. Are you, Firefly?"_

"_Is that supposed to be an insult, Skully?"_

_Alana chuckled at that. _

"_No, but this might be," he said, throwing his arms around her waist. Her eyes flew open and her smile slid off as his weight began to pull them both down. There was too much momentum to stop them, so they splashed into the water at full speed. Alana put her sketches down and raced to the end of the dock, grinning like mad the whole way there._

"_Oh, you idiot," Coridan screamed, splashing a hysterical Aaron. Alana laughed, letting the sound bubble up from her lungs. Her friend turned on her. "You, too, eh? Not for long!" _

_Alana nearly hit her head on the edge of the dock when Coridan pulled her into the water by her ankles. _

* * *

><p>Alana pulled her knees up to her chest. From the beginning, the idea of a second life had bothered her. She had lived a short, pleasant life before. Epsylum had been a good place. But she was alone there. She couldn't find Coridan or Aaron. Every time she heard a scream from the Fields of Punishment, she feared it was their pain. It was a terrifying feeling. A second chance was welcome only because she had trusted they would join her. Maybe this time they would get it right and all reach Epsylum. None of that would happen if the other two were still in the Underworld.<p>

"I don't want to be alone anymore," she whispered to the air.

**(A/N) Hope you like this chapter! Sorry if I offended anyone with my America banter. I like this country, but I'm sure Alana would notice the differences from** **back when she first came here. Compared to then, we must be so weird. **

**XOXO**

**~Cherry Punch**


	3. Chapter 3

"Alana Artista. Have you heard of her?"

The merpeople Percy were talking to all nodded. They had life expectancies much longer than what humans could expect. For all he knew, they were alive during Alana's lifetime.

"Great. We're looking for her. Yes, I know she's been dead for a while," he said, answering an unspoken question. "But she's back. Now, we know she's on the coast somewhere in America. We're going to need to check every beach on American territory. Will you help us?"

For a second, he was worried they would just laugh in his face. But the green skinned humanoids glanced at each other before they nodded. Sometimes it was easy to forget being the son of Poseidon had some perks when it came to under water diplomacy.

"Awesome. Let me know if you find anything," he said. His audience swam away in a blur of scales and skin. He swam to the surface, breaking through the placid surface. Annabeth reached down and gripped his hand, pulling him up onto Blackjack's back.

"Well?"

"We're all set."

She nodded. "We should probably head back now. There's a lot to prepare still."

"Yeah, let' go."

"_Bows? Blech," Coridan griped, sticking her tongue out. Aaron wrinkled his nose, too. His arm was propping him up, but it was also what Coridan was leaning on. Alana pretended not to notice how close her friends were to each other. _

"_Shut up. You're just saying that because neither one of you can use them," she said, aiming at the next target._

"_No, we're saying that because they're blech," he defended, Coridan smiling blissfully at him. _

"_Not all of us can be perfect, Nana. Don't blame us for it," Coridan teased._

"_I wasn't aware blame and pity were the same," Alana said slyly._

"_Oh, shut up," her friend muttered, her accent adding a twang that just made the others smile._

"Paris, Rome, I want to see it all," the blonde said, throwing her arms in the air and nearly knocking her latte off the counter. Coridan dove forward to catch it, still balancing the next customers order in her free hand. She dodged one of her coworkers and managed to get the drink tray to the serious man in the suit before every cup of black coffee could topple onto the ground. After the man paid her for the beverages, Coridan offered her best smile and turned back to her eccentric friend. Well, not friend, exactly. Coridan was the only one willing to listen to the blonde babble about how much she could do with her father's money.

"And then, I'll go have tea with the Queen. Oh, can't you just see it, Danny?"

"Cori," Coridan corrected her, swallowing her annoyance.

"Right, Cori. Can't you just see it? You'll have to come with me, though. Gosh, I don't know a dang thing about Great Britain. But you lived there; you could be my tour guide! Oh, wouldn't that be fun?"

"Mhm," Coridan murmured, nodding her head as much as she could with her elbow on the table and her chin in her hand. The store was busy, but her coworkers understood that listening to Christy was an important and time consuming job.

"This is fantastic! I'm so happy I have a friend like you! Tell me, what is it like, um, _over the pond?_ Is that how you say it?"

"Well, I haven't been back in a while. It's probably changed since then."

"Oh, silly. How old are you? Like, twenty-four? It can't be that long."

"Twenty-six." _But I haven't been back since the forties. _

"See! Not that long at all!"

"Yeah, well. Hey, look. It's nine o'clock. Don't you have an appointment?"

Christy gasped. "You're right. I don't know what I'd do without you, Danny!"

"Cori," she corrected as the overly perky blonde reached over the counter and pulled her into a hug.

"Same time tomorrow?"

"Yeah, as always."

"Great! See you then!"

Coridan kept smiling until the little bell on the door jingled. She pressed her face into her hands and rubbed the exhaustion out of her eyes.

"Oh, god that girl's going to kill me. I'll be the front page of every paper in L.A. 'Ginger Brit, killed by perky heiress'."

Becca chuckled. "Yeah, I can just see it now," she said sarcastically.

Coridan sighed. She forced herself to power through the rest of her shift. At her lunch break, she and Becca bought hot dogs from a street vender around the corner. They slumped on a bench, relief flooding Coridan's aching feet.

"I can't remember when the store was that busy," Becca groaned, biting into her hot dog.

"It's not the hardest thing I've ever had to do," Coridan responded.

"Oh yeah. You have to deal with Little Miss Daddy's Rich. I don't know how you do it."

"What? Talk to her?"

"No, well, I guess it is a challenge getting a word in there. But I mean how do you not just, like, HIYA," Becca shouted, flinging out her free arm as if she was karate chopping Christy's pretty little neck.

Coridan chuckled. "Come on, give her a break. Not everyone can be as privileged as us."

It was Becca's turn to laugh. "Privileged? Isn't that the funniest thing I've ever heard. I mean, yeah. Not everyone gets to work eleven hour shifts making coffee for every monkey suit and pink princess that walks into the shop."

"You, my friend, should write a book, because that was beautiful."

Becca chuckled. "You sound drunk."

"What? You think that, that just cause I have red hair that I, that I drink? That's prejudice," Coridan stuttered, leaning heavily on Becca who was laughing so hard she was crying.

"It's not the hair that makes me thing you're drunk, Core. It's all in the eyes."

"My eyes?" Coridan said, struggling to not laugh. "You know you can see someone's soul through their eyes? Can you see my soul?"

"No. You're a ginger, you don't have a soul," Becca said, almost accomplishing a straight face.

"Right for the throat, eh? Well, how about I poke at your-"

"Oh don't even start, Coridan!" Becca grinned, wrapping her arms around her cocoa skin.

"I was going to say you're terrible high lights." Becca's jaw dropped, her smile remaining. The two friends laughed harder than they had earlier.

Coridan missed her old friends, her old life. But she had found a good place to wait for them.

**(A/N) Hey my lovelies! So, there's Coridan. And a little bit of Percy and Annabeth. And some of the past! Oh, lucky you. Just kidding. **

**XOXO**

**~Cherry Punch**


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